GREENSBORO, N.C., -- PRNewswire/ -- Prominent trial attorney Willie Gary along with his legal team James Leonard Brown of Los Angeles, California and Michael Jones of Durham, North Carolina announced the filing of a multi-million dollar discrimination and breach of contract lawsuit on behalf of Michael and Ramona Woods and Black Network Television against the City of Greensboro, North Carolina. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Guilford County (case #6767).

The lawsuit details the irreparable damage and harm that the City of Greensboro's bad business dealings caused Michael and Ramona Woods and Black Network Television. The Woods are suing the City of Greensboro for discrimination and losses related to an economic development loan from the City that was approved on June 18, 2013, and then reneged on one month later by a City Council vote of 6 to 3. The lawsuit outlines the claim for damages caused by the denial of the promised funds. The loan was slated for network operations, including production of a new national comedy series titled, "Whatcha Cookin'?"

"The City of Greensboro's discriminatory acts crushed our client's dream," said Gary. "Michael and Ramona Woods discussed with various city officials what a successful minority owned Greensboro-based television network would mean to the community in terms of job creation, skills and training and economic development. As a result, the Woods put full trust and confidence in the City's promise to grant the economic development loan, only to be misled, misguided, deceived and discriminated against," continued Gary. "It isn't right and we will not stand for it!"

Gary is no stranger to seeking justice. Gary and his legal team are known for taking on some of the nation's most powerful corporate giants, including the funeral industry. In 1995, a jury awarded Gary and his legal team a record-breaking, half-billion dollars against one of the world's largest funeral chains, The Loewen Group. In addition, Gary is noted for winning a $240 million jury verdict in Orange County against the Walt Disney Corporation for his clients who alleged that Disney stole their idea for a sports theme park.

As a subscriber, I received a message from Tyler Perry today. It was a harrowing description of his personal experience with police officers who puuled him over one night. It also goes into the Trayvon Martin situation in Sanford, Florida and two missing men from Naples, Florida --- Felipe Santos and Terrance Williams.

I thought someone had hacked Tyler Perry's e-mail account and blasted a cruel and un-funny April Fool's Day joke. Could the police stop Perry described really have occured? Well, yes. Could the missing persons story be true? I didn't think so because I live in South Florida and I'd never heard of these cases.

A quick Google search proved me wrong. It seems Perry is drawing attention to the missing persons cases of the two men who lived in Naples. Perry asked, "What's Going on in Florida?"

With the controversy surrounding the Trayvon Martin incident dominating mainstream media and comparisons of his fatal shooting to other civil rights cases, it's easy to see how Florida is earning a horrible reputation when it comes to black and Latin males. Tyler Perry's celebrity status, will generate more media coverage of these two missing persons cases. The question remains... What's going on in Florida?

People around the world protested Georgia’s execution of Troy Anthony Davis for the August 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah. Messages and photos flooded Twitter’s timeline. Cable television news channels covered the story. Democracy Now! livestreamed coverage via the internet. As police presence in riot gear was beefed up at Georgia Diagnostic Prison, the site of the execution, it was apparent Davis would be put to death this time. In spite of the protests and legal appeals, Davis was executed by lethal injection at 11:08 PM EST on Wednesday, September 21, 2011.

Troy Anthony Davis proclaimed his innocence to the end. The State of Georgia has blood on its hands. If you are a Georgia resident, even if you are not on The Supreme Court, the Georgia parole board, are one of the witnesses that recanted, or are the District Attorney of Chatham County, that would be you too.

On August 19, 1989, off-duty cop Mark MacPhail was shot and killed in Savannah, GA. Troy Davis was arrested and sentenced to death. There was no physical evidence linking him to MacPhail’s murder. There were nine witnesses who said that Davis was the killer. Seven of those nine witnesses have recanted their testimony citing coercion by law enforcement. One of the two remaining witnesses is the original prime suspect.

Based on these facts, one has to wonder why the State of Georgia insists on executing Troy Davis on September 21, 2011. There is just too much doubt in the case of Troy Davis.

Hundreds of thousands of people have signed petitions asking that Troy Davis not be executed. Several former government officials and celebrities have also asked that Troy Davis not be executed. However, Michael MacPhail’s mother is looking forward to the execution of Troy Davis. She thinks it will bring her some peace. My heart goes out to her. I know the pain she feels. I know the feeling of having a child’s life taken in such a violent manner.

The truth, however, is that there is too much doubt that Troy Davis murdered Mark MacPhail. Family and friends want someone to pay for Mark’s murder. If Troy Davis is executed, their desire will still not have been honestly satisfied.

The execution of Troy Davis would be a terrible miscarriage of justice. Here are three steps you can take to help him before the Georgia Parole Board meets on September 19. 2011:

2. Sign the name wall, if you haven't already. And if you have, send it to your friends and family. Each name means a more united front for justice: http://action.naacp.org/Name-Wall

3. Make sure everyone knows about this injustice. Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter (using the hashtag #TooMuchDoubt) so that Troy Davis's story can be heard. We still have a chance to save his life, but only if people are willing to speak out against injustice.

Census information affects the numbers of seats your state occupies in the U.S. House of Representatives. And people from many walks of life use census data to advocate for causes, rescue disaster victims, prevent diseases, research markets, locate pools of skilled workers and more.

When you do the math, it's easy to see what an accurate count of residents can do for your community. Better infrastructure. More services. A brighter tomorrow for everyone. In fact, the information the census collects helps to determine how more than $400 billion dollars of federal funding each year is spent on infrastructure and services like:

You know I'm really sick and tired of these blog posts about police brutality and wrongful conviction cases. It's just wrong that people are taken advantage of by the justice system. It's also horrible when guilty folks get off for crimes that they have obviously convicted but I won't go there on this post.

This post in no way condemns the law-abiding enforcement officers or condones folks who act like idiots and need to be jailed. But there is something so insidious about police officers, lawyers, judges and other folks who taint the judicial process. In the end, Jesus, God, Allah, Jehovah or just divine order will take care of the culprits but that doesn't relinquish us of the duty to help those in need.

Enter sisters Gladys and Jamie Scott. These two women have been incarcerated for more than 14 years. They received a double life sentence for armed robbery committed on December 24, 1993. As has become typical, one of the men who actually committed the robbery later said he was coerced. All of the evidence wasn't presented. You know the rest because these cases appear to have similar recurring civil rights violations. Let me not forget to inform you that the robbery netted all of about $11.00. That's not a typographical error.

Please check out the links below to learn more about the case and spread the word about the wrongful conviction of the Scott Sisters. I know that we all must become somewhat tired with one case after another but if we put ourselves in the shoes of the Scott Sisters and their family, we'd want all the help we could get too.

On December 8th, 17-year-old Billey Joe Johnson died from a gunshotwound to the head. Police say he killed himself with a shotgun afterbeing stopped for a simple traffic violation in Lucedale,Mississippi.[1] Several things seem to cast doubt on the officialstory, including an independent investigation that concluded it wouldhave been impossible for the shot that killed Johnson to have beenself-inflicted.

Many on the ground smell a murder and a cover-up. We don't have all theanswers, but it's clear that in the racially divided town of Lucedale,all the ingredients exist for a miscarriage of justice.

I've joined ColorOfChange.org in demanding answers and justice forBilley Joe's family. Together, we can help ensure that the DistrictAttorney feels the presence of a national spotlight, and let him knowthat anything short of a thorough investigation will result in massiveattention and a call for outside intervention.

From the beginning, the District Attorney has treated theinvestigation of Billey Joe's death as a suicide or the result of anaccidental self-inflicted injury. Based on his public statements andinteractions with Billey Joe's family, it appears that the DistrictAttorney hasn't looked into whether Billey Joe was killed by anofficer or someone else. Again, we don't have all the answers, buthere's what we do know:

- Billey Joe was at his former girlfriend's house minutes before thekilling.[2] He never entered the house, but police were called torespond to an attempted burglary there.[3] This fact was not a part ofthe original story given by the police.

- Billey Joe's family say that his ex-girlfriend had been staying ather father's house because her mother threw her out for dating BilleyJoe (she is White and Billey Joe was Black). They said Billey Joe knewto only go to the house when the girl's father was not present, thatthe two of them were on good terms even after he had broken up withher, and that the breakup was largely because of pressure from herfather. The family also claims that there is a relationship betweenthe officer present at the scene of Billey Joe's death and the girl'sfather.

- A witness heard two shots, not one, at the scene where Billey Joedied, according to an independent investigation launched by theMississippi NAACP. The pathologist in that investigation has indicatedthat it would be impossible for a bullet from a a self-inflicted shotto enter in the manner that it did. He also said that given the lengthof Billey Joe's arms and the length of the shotgun, it would have beenimpossible for him to hold the weapon and fire it at himself.

- Billey Joe was a star athlete with scholarship offers from more thanhalf a dozen schools. No one--including family, friends, andcoaches--could think of a reason that Billey Joe would want to end hislife.[4,5,6]

A true investigation would sort out fact from rumor. But we can't besure that Johnson's family will get the investigation it deserves. Inthe case of the Jena 6 we saw a District Attorney and a judgeincapable of carrying out justice in a racially charged environment.In the recent case of the murder of Oscar Grant by police (and manylike it), we see how unlikely it is for District Attorneys to do theirjob when the suspect is an officer of the law. But in both thesecases, public pressure has made all the difference by shining aspotlight on local authorities.

In the case of Billey Joe Johnson, we're looking for the truth and forjustice. A minute of your time can help ensure his family gets both:

Blogger D. Yobachi Boswell over at BlackPerspective.net, rightfully challenged black bloggers on the issue of coverage of the Jena 6. Accurately, he points out that the issue of the Jena 6 is rarely covered by the mainstream media and more important by the very black bloggers that pushed the issue to the forefront of international media just eight months ago.

It's important to note that as the case continues, a hearing is scheduled for this Friday to consider a motion on behalf of the Jena 6 to remove Judge J.P. Mauffray from the case for judicial bias. Judge Mauffray is at the heart of the disparate judicial rulings in the Jena 6 case.

Like many, I have my reasons for abandoning the topic and I'm sure you do also. For me, the presidential election has consumed most of my energy especially with Barack Obama on the verge of being named Democratic Party nominee. I must also confess that I had concerns about the actions of some of the Jena 6 and did not want to continue to be disappointed. That being said, the Jena 6 issue is not as much about the young men involved as much as it about the situation happening in the first place. The decisions of the Jena , LA leaders following the initial incident and the violation of the civil rights the Jena 6 and the black students at Jena High School cannot go unabated.

I ask you to join me and other bloggers in covering the Jena 6 story, regardless of findings, until the issue has reached its conclusion. I'm adding the Jena 6 back to my news alert list. Will you do the same?

Elmore Nickelberry, left, then a Memphis sanitation worker on strike, was shocked at the King slaying: 'I was mad. It hurt me.' His son Terence displays a slogan made famous by the 1968 sanitation strike. CARL JUSTE / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

If you met me, you would regard it as a self-evident truth. But there was a time it would not have been.

See, I am a black man.

And for most of the years of America's existence, the terms were regarded by many as mutually exclusive. You could be black or you could be a man. You could not be both. Last month marked 40 years since striking sanitation workers in Memphis, virtually all of them black, composed a defiant response:

I AM A Man … the verb capitalized and underlined for emphasis on signs they carried as they marched for fair wages, for better conditions, for their own dignity.

Friday marks 40 years since that era came to its bloody end. Standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he had gone to support the sanitation workers, Martin Luther King was shot and killed.

Forty years later, here I am, a man - a black man in an era where black men, like other men, struggle to define manhood itself. Is it defined by strength? By toughness? By sexual potency? By money?

Forty years ago, it was defined by a single act of courage, black men saying what was unsayable and daring anyone ever to deny it again.